TMNT Unexpected Turns
by mysteryred
Summary: Adult Raph and Zoë. When Raph and Zoë take the kids out for a picnic things don't go as planned. I do not own TMNT.


_**Colors of the Wind**_

_You think the only people who are people_

_Are the people who look and think like you_

_But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger_

_You'll learn things you never knew, you never knew_

_~Vanessa Williams~_

**Zoe**

Rays of sunlight peeked through the canopy of leaves casting a golden glow over my colorful family. The trees provided us with the perfect shade from the unusually hot day as we sauntered along in search of the perfect picnic spot, and a warm spring breeze caressed my skin as I enjoyed the wild snowdrops and violets scattered along the path.

"Drea' stay on the trail, close to Anton, okay?" I called to my daughter lazily, enjoying holding Raph's hand as the four of us made our way along the narrowing dirt trail, and not feeling like running after her.

Of course the little redhead ignored me, not looking back as she decided to run ahead, giggling, in hopes that we would chase her. Raph's grip on my hand tightened before he released it, only for him to find me grabbing it back. "We're in the middle of nowhere Raph. Where's she going to go, besides in the woods and she won't go far because the burrs will scratch her little legs or she'll trip over something."

He frowned, his mask bunching above his eyes, "I don't want her gettin' hurt and we don't know where this trail goes. We've never been this far."

Smiling, I called to our son, "Anton, can you catch your sister for us?"

My son's green eyes flashed, ready to rise to the challenge, and he snorted, not bothering to answer me, before he ran after the squealing little girl ahead of him.

"Hey, be careful not to knock her down!" I called after him.

But he ran past her, picking up speed of his own and Raphael growled beside me.

"What the hell is he doin'?"

Anton ran faster still, disappearing around a turn on the path.

"Raph, you get the girl, I'll get the boy." I pointed to Drea' as she neared the curve Antonello had disappeared around.

"Why do I get the girl?" He snapped.

"Because I said so, just go!"

"You're startin' to sound like Leo, Zoe." He complained, before we both broke into a jog to catch our straying children.

I rounded the bend and my heart nearly stopped, as my breath hung trapped in my throat, I managed a squeak.

The path ended abruptly, opening to a sprawling pasture, where my son was running with a curly golden haired little girl about his age. Unable to breathe, and stunned by the way they laughed and chased each other, I stood frozen. Heart racing, I quickly scanned the spaces surrounding them, looking for the adult that surely would not be far from the other child, but I neither saw nor sensed anyone. Far up the hill I could just make out a tiny shack of a farmhouse, nestled among a cluster of oak trees.

Raphael rounded the corner, with Drea' on his shoulders, and almost slammed into me.

"Zoe what're you doing? Get him!" a panicked Raph yelled before moving to go around me.

A lump rose in my throat as I flung out my hand across Raph's plastron, "Raphael, wait, just _look_ at him. Look."

The sound that came from within Raph hurt to hear as he watched our young, flawlessly skinned, emerald green turtle boy chase the dirty, but beautiful, blonde human child. Both children were laughing and stumbling, sprinting and falling. Anton even helped her up when she tripped over her tattered dress. The girl's big blue eyes showed no wariness for my son's differences. _Her heart is open and unbroken, unlike my sons will surely be by the end of this day._

Raph, swallowed a second sound, equally as painful on the ears, and one look at his face brought an ache to my chest. With his mouth set in a grim line and green eyes reminiscent of his own past, his heart was breaking for his son and I knew it. Suddenly he lowered Andrea from his shoulders, placing her in my arms, and in a voice I had seldom heard but knew not to question, he told me, "Take Drea' and head back home Zoe. Antonello and I will catch up."

The lump in my throat made a drastic leap, forcing a blur into my eyes, "Raph."

"Just go Zoe," Raph's voice cracked as he watched his son but spoke to me, "please."

Taking one last look at a laughing, and rarely seen, lighthearted Antonello, tagging the girl before she chased after him, I fixed his green eyes, bright with the light of day and all of the freedom and innocence a child possessed, in my memory, for when he came home, I knew they may never shine quite the same way again.

"I'll just take the girl up to that house on the hill. I wouldn't want her to follow us home. You go ahead with Anton. Drea' and I will see you at home." I said softly, taking a glance at Raph's face before stepping out into the field to approach the children.

Raph didn't say anything only watching Anton intently.

The girl noticed me, before Anton did, and at first sight of Andrea, her already brilliant eyes lit up as if sunlight was peeking from behind clouds. "Hi, my name is Ellie. What's your baby's name?"

Her little voice reminded me of a songbird chirping and I was instantly taken with her. _My poor, sweet Antonello._

"Hi, this is Drea' and my name is Zoe. Where do you live?"

As I made conversation with the sweet little hummingbird of a girl, Raphael snatched up Anton and disappeared with some of the finest ninja stealth ever pulled off in the wide open and light of day.

Ellie pointed a dirt covered finger toward the tiny farmhouse, before looking around for Antonello. "Hey where'd my friend go?"

Ignoring her question I pointed up the hill, "Come on, I'll walk you back up to your house and you can tell me about your family."

The child frowned, her eyes hopelessly searching for Anton as she spun around and walked haphazardly about. "He was here," her lip quivered and her eyes filled, further adding to the burden of my own internal struggle.

Swallowing the painful knot in my throat, that seemed unending and felt like a rock, I shrugged. "I'd love to meet your Mommy." I said taking my first steps up the hill.

"Okay," she replied, looking back one last time.

XXX

_**The Story of My Life**_

_Written on these walls are the colours that I can't change_

_Leave my heart open but it stays right here in its cage_

_~One Direction~_

**Raphael**

I don't know what I was thinking. Ever since I'd let Zoe in everything had just spiraled out of control from there, and for the longest time I've done nothing but keep moving forward with her. It's not that I had any desire to do anything else, but I've been turning a blind eye to all of the details along the way. I never dreamed she would've gotten pregnant and when she did, I was selfish enough to want the baby and when I asked her, she gave him to me, the way I knew she would.

But there is only one Antonello. One. And there were three more just like me. That's not much, but having my brothers sure made growing up a lot less lonely than what Anton felt, more and more every day.

_His suffering is my fault. I should've never- _

The damn lump in my throat was back, the ache in my plastron damn near knocking the air out of me. Watching Anton stomp along beside me, arms crossed, eyes flaring with anger that was geared towards me, didn't make what I had to say any easier, not one bit.

"Why'd you do that Dad?" He looked back at me, glaring.

"We're not far enough away from them to have this talk. Keep movin'."

We were plenty far enough away and I knew it, I just didn't have the words sorted out in my head yet.

I'd been floating along, loving my family, enjoying this light filled time of my life. _Damn, dark clouds, they ruin everything._ But with everyday he grew and I was that much closer to facing what I'd been worrying about since the day he was born… that there would come a day when he would have to fight, for his life. And here I am getting ready to explain just a part of that and he's only four.

However I put this to him could make a difference on the type of adult he would grow to be. I didn't want him bitter and shut off like I had been. Well, the Pre-Zoe version of me, the child me. Not that I didn't care about others as a kid, but I'd feared the inevitable rejection so damn much, I'd push everyone away so they couldn't hurt me. _I'm so sorry Antonello._ I grumble to myself and rub my face as I trudge along behind him. Anton was exactly the way I had been, only lonelier than I ever was on my worst day, and what better place for darkness to take root?

This was something that I needed to tell him. It was my job, since I was the moron who wanted his mother to bring him into this fucked up world. That and since I was the closest thing to being what he is. _But he's still one of a kind, because I was made and he was born._

"Anton, take a left at the crossing."

He did as I asked but not without continuing to intermittently stomp and drag his feet.

The trail ventured down by the river that ran all the way to our family's favorite swimming hole. Today however, I was just looking for a peaceful place to have a difficult conversation with my son. As the sounds of running water filled my ears I tried to organize my thoughts, to put them in words that were right for a four year old.

Sprouts of bright green grass, almost the color of Anton's skin, pushed through the ground, struggling to escape the cover of leaves that held them down. I felt the same way about humans, held down, less than, limited by. How ironic that humans held us back, and yet it was a human-hybrid that had taken me so far forward.

"There Antonello, let's sit on that rock," I pointed him to a large flat stone that jutted out over the river. Scooping up a handful of flat stones, I lowered myself to sit next to him and flung one across the water, watching it skip four times before sinking.

Usually Anton would be impressed. Today, he hung a foot over the side of the rock, kicking the bubbling, gurgling water with his toes. "Why'd ya take me away? I wasn't bein' bad."

Taking a deep breath I stuck my own feet in the cool water. "I know you weren't Antonello."

"Stop sayin' my big name. I'm not in trouble, I wasn't bad!" He kicked up a splash that sent water flying up my legs, wrapping his arms tighter across himself and slouching so that his shell loomed up around his neck. The darn scowl on his face was adorable. It was all I could do not to fold like a house of cards, and his mother surely would've.

"You're not in trouble Anton. It's just we've got to talk about some stuff and I want you to know it's important."

"Whatever," he grumbled, rolling his eyes.

_Little Shit, could you be any more like me?_

"I could tell you really liked that girl."

He shrugged.

"Anton, we just can't be seen by humans. It's not safe. They're scared of us and we don't want that. People do crazy stuff when they get scared."

"You mean when they don't understand."

I straightened up, "That's exactly what I mean. Who told ya that?"

Anton glared at the water and I noticed the set of his jaw shift, "Mommy."

For the first time in the past hour I smiled. Zoe was determined to protect his heart, to help him love despite the limits the world put on us. If she had her way she'd see Anton grow to be a better man than any human could hope to be.

"What do you think?" I asked, tossing another rock. It skimmed across the water making little splashes along the way.

"I don't think she cared what I look like."

Nodding, I handed him a couple of stones and cast another out over the water, "I don't think she did either. But her Mom and Dad, they may have been scared and you coulda been hurt by them."

He scoffed, "It's stupid."

"What's stupid?"

He gave a small stone a good launch, skipping it five times, and I admired the flick of his wrist. For a boy of four he already possessed a talent that made even Leo and me a little jealous.

"I can't have friends cas' I'm the only me and I'm scary to everybody. But I didn't do anything wrong. It don't make sense."

_If the fucking lump in my throat doesn't clear out I'm gonna throw it up. _

"No, it doesn't and I'm sorry."

Anton turned to look at me, but when I glanced down at him he shifted his gaze back out over the water.

"You're brave Daddy."

_This freakin kid, I swear._ My heart clenched, "How's that?"

"You save people even though they'd hurt you."

"Ah, Antonello, I don't want you to think all people are bad. Not all of them would hurt us. And before I met your Mom, I would never say this, but, chances are you'll even make friends with a few of them."

"Like that girl?" he skipped another stone and turned his head away from me.

"Maybe, but it's gonna be awhile Anton. You've got a lot to learn and we have to be careful. So do me a favor and no runnin' off after the first cute girl ya see anymore, okay?"

His head whipped around, "Cute? I never said she was cute!" He kicked the water excitedly with his feet, "Do you think she thought I was cute?"

I rubbed my hand over my face, "Well, this conversation just took an unexpected turn."

**A/N:** I know that this story and Superhero aren't as happy and fun as Glitter, but there's a purpose to them and I'm hoping to lead us right up to Zoe Part III.


End file.
